BBQ 8 1/2? One of N.Y.C.’s Best Pitmasters Is Opening a Fine-Dining Restaurant on Billionaire’s Row

The jump from barbecue to fine dining may sound difficult, but one of New York’s best pitmasters is taking the plunge anyway.

Billy Durney, the chef behind Brooklyn’s Hometown Bar-B-Que and Red Hook Tavern, will open a fine-dining restaurant on Billionaire’s Row next year, The New York Times reported on Friday. For the new spot, Durney is working with Kent Hospitality Group, the restaurant conglomerate that the chef James Kent founded before his unexpected death this past summer.

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“It’s going to be a real New York restaurant,” Durney told the Times. “I want the hip-hop people, and the readers and writers, and the ladies who lunch.”

Located at 9 West 57^th Street, in the former home of Brasserie 8 ½, the unnamed restaurant will be warm, cozy, and sexy, according to The New York Times, and the dining room will revolve around a live-fire grill and coal oven. Durney’s taking inspiration from a few of his friends in the culinary world, including Massimo Bottura, Victor Arguinzoniz of Spain’s Asador Etxebarri, and Dave Pynt of Singapore’s Burnt Ends.

The collaboration with Kent Hospitality happened before Kent’s death, with the late chef reaching out to Durney and drawing him to the Manhattan address, the Times noted. Since then, Kent Hospitality has helped Durney buy out the investors in his other restaurants, bringing those spots into the Kent Hospitality fold. Durney is now on the company’s board, as well.

Earlier last year, Kent Hospitality revealed massive expansion plans, aided by investment from the private-equity firm SC Holdings. The firm is notably a major investor in LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s entertainment studio, and the duo’s LRMR Ventures is also a minority investor in Kent Hospitality, as we reported in April.

While Kent died just a couple of months after that news came to light, his group has been carrying on his legacy, and already its expansion plans are underway. Kent’s former deputy Danny Garcia is at the head of his own restaurant, Time and Tide, while the Michelin-starred chef Charlie Mitchell has taken the helm at Saga. And several new openings are in the works, including Gregory Gourdet’s five restaurants at the forthcoming Printemps department store.

Durney’s upcoming opening joins the list of Kent Hospitality’s N.Y.C. takeover, and sounds like it’ll serve as a fitting tribute to the late chef who convinced him to cross the river into Manhattan.

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